Does Dallas think the playoffs are over?

[dirk41]

We are taking EVERY team seriously in the playoffs.
We have a goal and I don't care if we were going up against the best or the worst, we would take them all seriously.
The championship means that much to us.
All the local media in Dallas. (Well the sports guys who actually know what they are talking about) have said that this is going to be a tough battle between our two teams. The Mav players agree and so do I.

 

[cly2tw]

dirk41,

your Mavs are not like the Spurs in a crucial aspect relevant for the series for the Suns: Dirk is not Duncan. In addition, none from last year's Suns that was humiliated by the Spurs was defensively as good as Raja or Kurt. Certainly, Dirk has arrived, but the series will be more balanced one for the Suns than the ones played in the first two rounds. The most important issue from our hard-fought series wins is that Barbosa and Diaw have finally matured and playoff tested. If we keep our confidence like we did in the game 7s so far, we feel we can beat anyone, maybe except the Spurs (so thanks a lot on that count ).

 

[SunsTzu]

I don't really know what Dallas is thinking now or how they feel. However I did think Avery Johnson was making too big a deal of the victory over the Spurs. Saying "how bout those Mavericks" like the Cowboys did after winning Super Bowls seemed odd to me.

 

[dirk41]

First off, when Jimmy Johnson said, "How 'bout them Cowboys," it wasn't after the Super Bowl. He said this following a shocking Cowboys victory at San Francisco in the conference finals.

Dirks numbers were incredible--he out-rebounded Duncan in the series and he averaged over 27 points & over 13 rebounds per game.
And Dirk turned and badly sprained his ankle, yet he still went on to average 46.8 minutes, played in 2 OT's and even though he sometimes hobbled down the court, his injury never affected his numbers.

Like I said before, we have had to go up against much better teams than the Suns have this post season (and it didn't take us 14 games to do it either)
When we went up against an inferior team in the 1st round, we swept them.
When we went up against the defending world champions, we gave them a run for their money and we beat them.
If the NBA made any sense, the Mavs would have played against the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, not in the semi-finals.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

First off, when Jimmy Johnson said, "How 'bout them Cowboys," it wasn't after the Super Bowl. He said this following a shocking Cowboys victory at San Francisco in the conference finals.

Dirks numbers were incredible--he out-rebounded Duncan in the series and he averaged over 27 points & over 13 rebounds per game.
And Dirk turned and badly sprained his ankle, yet he still went on to average 46.8 minutes, played in 2 OT's and even though he sometimes hobbled down the court, his injury never affected his numbers.

Like I said before, we have had to go up against much better teams than the Suns have this post season (and it didn't take us 14 games to do it either)
When we went up against an inferior team in the 1st round, we swept them.
When we went up against the defending world champions, we gave them a run for their money and we beat them.
If the NBA made any sense, the Mavs would have played against the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, not in the semi-finals.

No one, and I mean NO ONE on a "badly" (of course this is subjective) sprained ankle can play 46 minutes a game. I had the worst ankle sprain possible with no tearing of the tendons/ligaments, or fracturing of the bone, and I could not WALK on my ankle for 8 weeks or run for 6 months. My ankle was the size of a large melon. I attribute Dirk's ankle sprain to the same type of sprain that Marion had. A slight tweak, where you could retighten the ankle with a brace and still play through pain.

 

[Cheesebeef]

If the NBA made any sense, the Mavs would have played against the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, not in the semi-finals.

you know what's funny - NO ONE SAID SQUAT LAST year when we were the number 1 team, had to play a 58 win Mavs team and the Spurs got that weak-ass 51 win team in Seattle. The Mavs thought they benefitted last year by avoiding the Spurs in the 2nd round and thought they'd beat us, so they were silent (and wrong) - now, this year that the shoe was on the other foot, they cried foul - give me a break.

And as far as the Cowboys beating the Niners - again - that was the CONFERENCE FINALS - I recall GB acting the same way after beating SF in the conference Finals two years later, than getting their ass handed to them by Dallas the next week. Boast after you've accomplished something, like a Conference Title - not before.

 

[myrondizzo]

you know what's funny - NO ONE SAID SQUAT LAST year when we were the number 1 team, had to play a 58 win Mavs team and the Spurs got that weak-ass 51 win team in Seattle. The Mavs thought they benefitted last year by avoiding the Spurs in the 2nd round and thought they'd beat us, so they were silent (and wrong) - now, this year that the shoe was on the other foot, they cried foul - give me a break.

i have presented the same arguement to my dad everytime i hear charles whine about why "the best two teams are playing in the second round" i also like to point out that the ways they are planning on changing it is going to leave it just as un fair to the 5 and 6 seeds. they need to either have the div title mean something or nothing not this kinda something crap. and to all the dallas fans out there if you have a problem maybe you should have just won the division then.

 

[Hoopy Dunkalot]

In reference to the original title of this post....

Yes. This series is a formality. The Mavs have already won the championship.

 

[myrondizzo]

In reference to the original title of this post....

Yes. This series is a formality. The Mavs have already won the championship.

this troll is on fire

 

[dirk41]

And as far as the Cowboys beating the Niners - again - that was the CONFERENCE FINALS - I recall GB acting the same way after beating SF in the conference Finals two years later, than getting their ass handed to them by Dallas the next week. Boast after you've accomplished something, like a Conference Title - not before.

If you will read my post,that is EXACLTLY what I said.
It was the Suns fans who had this all screwed up. Everyone thought that J. Johnson said that after the Superbowl, which wasn't true.

 

[mavsfan1000]

I understand the matchup problems that the suns will give us and I'm sure they have a much better shot at beating us than them beating San Antonio. I am predicting the mavs in 7. That is how good I think the suns are and how tough the matchups are.

 

[dirk41]

What you don't take into consideration is that last year when we played against each other in the playoffs, we had a brand new coach who had just begun implementing a brand new system---completely opposite from the system they had under Nellie.

We knew that it would be extremely difficult to go very far in the playoffs by making such huge changes to our team at the end of last season but they were changes that needed to be made and they certainly paid off this year.

We are a drastically different team than what you faced last year in the playoffs--and have improved even more in the post season.

We don't underestimate your team, and I think it would be very wise not to underestimate ours.

 

[dirk41]

I understand the matchup problems that the suns will give us and I'm sure they have a much better shot at beating us than them beating San Antonio. I am predicting the mavs in 7. That is how good I think the suns are and how tough the matchups are.

Ummm, do you think that the Spurs would have gone 7 games against the Lakers and the Clippers???

Do you think the Mavs would have???

Okay, enough said about that.

You are correct that the Suns are going to give the Mavs fits but they don't rebound, they don't play defense. The Suns have a lot more holes in their game to expose than the Mavs do.

The same reasons that the Mavs never had a legitimate chance of winning a championship under Nellie's system are the exact same reasons that the Suns don't.

You cannot win a championship without playing defense. The Mavs spent years trying to prove otherwise. It was only when we finally started playing defense that we began to get respect as a legitimate contender.

 

[Gaddabout]

they don't play defense.

This, I think, is a bad misconception. The Suns are a small, quick team that can hassle big men into turnovers, which is how the Suns won Games 1 and 7 against the Clips and pretty much all the games against the Lakers.

The Suns don't play for defense. By that, I mean the Suns don't put many defensive eggs in their scheming basket. But what they do put in there -- particularly late in games -- has been effective.

That said, the Suns were a much -- MUCH -- better defensive team with a healthy Kurt Thomas to the tune of fourth in the league in defensive field goal percentage. Without him, it's been score, score, score and scramble for defensive stops late in the game.

 

[mavsfan1000]

The suns need Kurt Thomas for defense but if he is playing than the matchups work out better for the mavs. No way Dampier or Diop can handle Diaw but Kurt Thomas is a different story. There is a reason the suns won the last 2 meetings and that was exploiting matchups with Diaw at center